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Parish Plan Open Meeting - 29 May 2008

Peter Thurlow

The parish plan has progressed to the point of exhibiting the results of the village questionnaire and consulting villagers on the next step. To that end a number of us attended an open evening at the village hall this week.

A report from Nick Hayward is available here.

Photos: Peter Thurlow

Wine Society - 9 May 2008

Peter Thurlow

The wine society began in a hesitant sort of way, to provide an opportunity for wine lovers to improve their knowledge of wines and compare those which otherwise they might not get to know. It still serves that purpose, but inevitably it's moved on. Brandeston loves a party and so the original austere dry biscuits and those rather racy little numbers with a hint of cheese have long gone.

'How about matching wine with food?' somebody suggested, and we were off. So last week more than 30 people turned up to eat a three course meal accompanied by six wines, and all for a tenner. The food was prepared by Tim Owens (below), the latest and most welcome addition to Brandeston's growing list of foodies. On the previous occasion, he had prepared olives with focaccia which he had baked himself, spicy meatballs in a tomato sauce and the most exquisite fruit tart with loganberries.

This time it was chicken liver pate, cassoulet and then tarte tatin. Again, Tim cooked it all, and overcame the problem of where to find Toulouse sausages for the cassoulet in the middle of rural Suffolk by presenting a recipe to John Hutton at Earl Soham, and being an enterprising butcher, John made them.

The theme of the evening was 'French country wines', and guests drank four from the Languedoc, and others from the Loire and the southern Rhone. The gusto with which they were quaffed was partly explained by a number of the sober and responsible family men there having previously attended the family feast at the pub. They had made it their business to see their wives and children properly fed and watered, before ambling up the road to ease their tired minds with a little relaxing oenothology after a long week. The continuing good humour of the evening then owed something to their deciding to return to the pub after the wine tasting had finished and all bottles had been scrutinized for dregs.

The next event is tentatively scheduled for 4th July, though the theme of the evening still has to be decided. Those who might be interested in attending should e-mail Martin Churchill at martin@holmestravel.co.uk

See more photos here.

Eastern Angles: Cuckoo Teapot - 4 March 2008

Eastern Angles hasn’t played in Brandeston for ten years or more and so it was a very welcome return for the company last night to  a full house in the new village hall.

This is an amazing team. They move their production around the region, playing in a different village every night. When I went to the village hall at about 5:00 on Tuesday to take some photos, it appeared chaotic. The stage was in bits; the lighting rigs seemed to occupy the whole of the hall; the committee room was full of wardrobe; the seats were piled up at the side and what was left of the floor was covered with tools, ladders and other bits and pieces. Amongst all this were people I recognised from the publicity material as actors along with other company personnel. Everyone was doing something to turn the hall into a theatre. It was clearly no time to take photos so I thought I would go back closer to the opening time.

Just over an hour later on my second visit, it was a completely different place. Chaos had transformed into order. The hall looked like a proper theatre: the stage, lighting and seats were now all in place. It was still busy with last minute jobs in the main hall and someone preparing the costumes in the committee room but the team looked all set for the important part of the evening – the performance.

The play by Kate Griffin was the usual mix of conflict and humour with moments of poignancy. After his brother’s death, Joseph (Tim Bell) finds lodgings in Burton-on-Trent but his arrival in the house produces a series of revelations. His first encounter with Emily (Bryony Harding) leads to an immediate attraction. Gradually, we learn the actual nature of the relationship between Joseph and Emily and also, surprisingly, between Joseph and his mother.

There was strong imagery in some of the scenes. At one point, broken nets are mended while an estranged family comes together again. The mother’s assumption that her son had fathered a child turns out to be wrong but the play not only ends with a much darker revelation, but also with a reconciliation when broken family bonds are healed. What was that dark revelation? Well, that’s not for this review but there are plenty of opportunities to find out in some of the other villages on the tour.

It was a professional performance from versatile actors directed by Ivan Cutting. Bryony Harding was particularly impressive as Emily and brought her character of some dubious morality alive.

After the audience went home, it was time for the company to put everything back in the van ready for Wednesday’s performance in Polstead. This is theatre for the people brought to the people by a dedicated company. The Arts Council had cut their grant by almost 50% but, in a change of heart in February, the award for next year was increased to £195000 with £224137 promised for 2009/10 and £230188 for 2010/11. The region is lucky to have Eastern Angles and Brandeston, I’m sure, will welcome them back next year.

More photos here.

Photos: Eastern Angles and MP&D

Family Bingo Night - 16 February 2008

The almost-regular family bingo evening, a full year after the previous one, took place last Saturday. A really good turnout of families and friends from Brandeston and surrounding villages paid £253 in entry and ticket fees which was returned as prizes throughout the night.

Unlike last year, only one prize was shared thanks to the greater number of people in the hall. The first few prizes were of low value, while the total amount of money available was being worked out, but started rising just before the refreshment break. The final two prizes of the evening ended up being £15 for a line and a jackpot of £83 for a full house which was won by Mary Baker, pictured above with her winnings.

It’s an odd game, bingo; there are periods of boredom when none of the numbers on your bingo card appear to be in the box and there is no mark at all on your paper, while all the people around you seem to be marking their cards on every call. At some of those times, I would find myself staring at my card in such a trance that, when one of my numbers was actually called, I didn’t cross it off which does not help at all with winning a prize.

But then, for those who were concentrating properly, three numbers in a row would suddenly be on your card and you would be just one number away from a prize, Now the adrenaline kicks in and you feel you are bound to win - right up to the moment someone else calls out. Proof, yet again in your mind, that gambling just doesn’t pay.

Our new caller this year was Eve Crane who was helped greatly by us using the 100+ Club balls, significantly larger than the ones Fred had trouble with last year. Nevertheless, they still jumped out of the box for reasons known only to Eve and leading her to claim to always “have problems handling balls”.

As well as the refreshment break, there were free raffles in the form of Heads or Tails games with Ena giving her all and just failing on the last toss of the coin - see photo below.

Thanks to people buying refreshments, enough money was taken to cover expenses and provide £90 for the village hall.

Photos: MP&D

Click here for more photos.

Valentine Dance - 9 February 2008

This is clearly a good time of the year for events at the village hall. Following the success of the Quiz Night, it was always going to be risky getting people out again two weeks later - but that’s what happened. Almost 70 people turned out to dance to the village’s regular band, Tyler-Kemp. We even had a busload of dickie-bowed men and partners come out from Ipswich.

With couples asked to bring a plate of food, a huge variety of dishes was on offer - far more varied and exciting than anything a committee could have organised .... and it was all hoovered up by the dancers.

Fred Mugleston, who was disappointed at the response to his summer dance and vowed, at the time, never again, was a happy man. “I’m absolutely delighted with the turnout”, he said on the night, “It’s gone far better than I could have hoped for.”

It wasn’t just the food that disappeared: the wine was all but sold out and people were generous with the raffle to such an extent that sellers ran out of raffle tickets. According to Fred, £629 was raised for the village hall and maybe he’ll do another one later in the year.

Quiz Night - 26 January 2008

Hastings and Brighton .... not the answers to questions on south coast towns but a former president of Malawi (Banda) and a Graham Greene book (Rock). It was Quiz Night at a packed Brandeston village hall on Saturday, 26 January where we had eleven teams of six – or rather ten and a half as one team lost three members at the last moment – in friendly competition.

Quizzes are for people of a certain age. Unfortunately, a lot of us are now at that time of life where we know that we know the answers but the time to recall them is so long that we should have had sight of the questions about two hours earlier. Nevertheless, every team, thanks to the clever use of the Joker, which allowed the points for a round to be doubled, managed to score more than 50%.

Sue and Peter Thurlow (left and below) organised the event, which included a half-time supper of sausage and mash, not to mention a lucky dip for a purple Maglight torch (batteries not included), and raised £497 for village hall funds.

The winning team, who put everyone to shame, not just because of their winning score, but because they were not Brandeston people comprised Jenny, Joan and Jackie from the Brandeston tap dancing class (there is a link after all) and their husbands.

 Photos of all the teams are here.

Photos: MP&D